INFATUATION GROWS

ED’S INFATUATION WITH JACKIE GROWS AS HE LEARNS MORE ABOUT HER AND ALL THEY HAVE IN COMMON – ALL THE THINGS HE AND BELLE DID NOT HAVE IN COMMON. THE THINGS ABOUT HIM THAT WOULD DRIVE BELLE INSANE, THIS NEW WOMAN WOULD FIND ENDEARING OR EVEN EXCITING. HE COULD SHARE WITH HER THINGS HE NEVER COULD WITH HIS FORMER WIFE. ED DID NOT EVEN KNOW THIS KIND OF CONNECTION WITH ANOTHER HUMAN BEING WAS EVEN POSSIBLE. 

ED: I need to ask you something about what you said the other day.

JACKIE: Something I said in group?

ED: No, something you said out here on the patio.

JACKIE: I’ve said a lot of things out here on the patio.

ED: Sure. Sure… but what I need to ask you about is that past life thing.

JACKIE: The past life thing?

ED: Yeah, you said you REMEMBERED it.

JACKIE: Yes, that is what I said.

ED: What do you mean you remember it?

JACKIE: I remember it the same way I remember anything else from all my other past lives – while I am asleep.

ED: You mean in dreams?

JACKIE: (NODS)

ED: So what makes those dreams different from any other dreams you have? Or do you even have regular dreams?

JACKIE: Oh, I have regular dreams to be sure! I also have dreams which are memories of lives already lived and sometimes even lives yet to come.

ED: (LOOKS CONFUSED OR PERHAPS ASTONISHED)

JACKIE: What makes the memory dreams different is that they… they feel more real than regular dreams. It feels like I am awake inside the dream. If it’s a dream of the future, then I have the ability to make decisions because it hasn’t happened yet. If it is a dream of the past, then I can only watch how things play out.

ED: Because that history has already been written.

JACKIE: Exactly! 

ED: Sure. Sure. I think I get it.

JACKIE: I think you do too. This isn’t rocket surgery!

ED: (LAUGHS GENUINELY)

JACKIE: So why do you ask?

ED: Because I’ve been having this dream.

JACKIE: What sort of dream?

ED: A dream like you have – a dream that feels more like a memory.

JACKIE: And what happens in this dream that feels like a memory?

ED: I am standing on this patch of ground. There is mist all around me. Then there is a parting of the mist and I see this woman with red hair in a green dress standing above me. She sees me too. Then she falls. (HE PAUSES WHILE CONTEMPLATING WHETHER TO TELL JACKIE ABOUT THE AXE AND DECIDES AGAINST IT) That’s when I wake up.

JACKIE: I see. 

ED: Yeah.

JACKIE: And you’re sure that’s all you remember about the dream?

ED: That’s all I can remember so far. Each time I have the dream I seem to remember a bit more. 

JACKIE: That is often how it works.

ED: What do you mean? Does this happen to other people too?

JACKIE: Of course it does! Why would you think we are the only two people to have lived past lives and have met before?

ED: I don’t know. As I said, I’ve never really thought much about this sort of thing.

JACKIE PUFFS AWAY ON A CIGARETTE AS ED WATCHES HER AWKWARDLY IN SILENCE

JACKIE: I am glad you’re thinking about it now.

ED: Yeah?

JACKIE: Thank you for telling me about your dream.

ED: Uh, you’re welcome.

JACKIE: Yes, you’re welcome..

ED: Sure. Sure.

JACKIE: Was there something else you wanted to ask me?

ED: Well… yes, in fact.

JACKIE: Go ahead.

ED: So these dreams of memories from the past – do you have to wait for them to come or can you somehow cause them to happen?

JACKIE: That is a very good question. At first, you have to wait and get familiar with how the dream feels and the spaces within it. But eventually you can teach yourself to have the dream at will. Some people can even learn to do it while they are still awake.

ED: Can you do that?

JACKIE: No, not yet. Though I do hope to be able to one day.

ED: Interesting.

JACKIE: It really is!

ED: So if you can learn to have the dream at will, can a person figure out some way of changing the dream?

JACKIE: I am afraid that is impossible. To change the dream would be to change the past and nobody I’ve ever known or heard of can do that.

ED: Hmm.

JACKIE: Why would you want to change the past?

ED: I just don’t like the way my dream plays out.

JACKIE: We all have things we regret – people we’ve hurt, choices that didn’t turn out like we thought, things destroyed that cannot be replaced.

ED: Or people…

JACKIE: Yeah, or people.

THE BOTH HAVE A SERIOUS LOOK ABOUT THEM AS SCREEN FADES TO BLACK